Nature – Page 12 – Wandering Dawgs

Happy Birthday United States National Park Service

August 25, 2023August 26, 2023Posted in National Parks, NatureTagged Get out and explore, National Park Service Anniversary8 Comments

The National Park Service was established on August 25, 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson to manage our nation’s national parks. Today there are 63 national parks and many more national monuments, national historic sites, and other national areas managed by the National Park Service.

In 1872 Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming became our first National Park. The header image above is of Lower Yellowstone Falls.

New River National Park in West Virginia is our newest national park. We visited there when it was known as New River National River.

New River Gorge Bridge, New River National Park, West Virginia

During our years of wandering we have visited many of these wonderful national areas. In 2016 I posted about the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary. Since then we have visited national areas in two of the United States Territories in the Caribbean.

USVI National Park, St. John, United States Virgin Islands

San Juan National Historic Site, Castillo San Crostobal

The U.S. National Parks offer many opportunities to get out and explore natural areas, see wildlife, visit historic sites and monuments, go paddling, go hiking, go camping, and much more. Find a park near you at National Park Service and get out and explore!

Shared with Terri’s Sunday Stills: Let’s Celebrate Something

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #255 -Telling a story

July 1, 2023Posted in Butterflies, Nature, PhotographyTagged Lens-Artists, Monarch Butterfly, monarch caterpillar, Photo Challenge, Telling a story16 Comments

Patti has challenged us to focus on telling a story with our images.

My story is the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly. I haven’t been able to capture Monarch’s in my garden this year so these images are all from my archives.

*Female Monarchs lay their eggs on Milkweed*

*Caterpillars emerge from the hatched eggs and eat the leaves of a milkweed plant. Milkweed is all they eat.*

*The Monarch Caterpillar crawls to a place to form a chrysalis.*

*The caterpillar changes into a butterfly while inside the chrysalis.*

*A new adult Monarch emerges from the chrysalis*

Many thanks to Patti for the challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #255 – Telling a Story

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #252 – What’s Bugging You?

June 8, 2023June 8, 2023Posted in Butterflies, Nature, PhotographyTagged Bugs, Insects, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, What's bugging you19 Comments

For this challenge Donna asks the question “What’s Bugging You?” Insects rarely want to cooperate when I am trying to take their photo. I spent some time in my garden following bees around this week but none of of them wanted their picture taken. Here are a few favorite bug images from my archives.

Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

Unknown moth caterpillar in Dominica

Swallowtails on Thistle in the Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia

Tiger Swallowtail

Lynx Spider

Wasp on Milkweed

Cicada Skeleton

Many thanks to Donna at Wind Kisses for her challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #252 – What’s Bugging You

April in the Rear View Mirror

April 30, 2023Posted in Birds, Flowers, Nature, Road TripTagged Books, Month of the Military Child, Weekend Coffee Share15 Comments

Here’s what happened in my world in April, 2023.

Month of the Military Child

I can’t let April go by without mentioning that April is the Month of the Military Child. Military children are also sometimes called Brats. I am proud to be a United States Air Force Brat.

Trip to the Country

After what seems like a long, cold winter we took a short road trip to the country in early April. We couldn’t go by the Georgia Football Barn Sign on Georgia Highway 15 in Tennile with stopping to snap a few photos. The trees were just beginning to display their green leaves. We spotted a few deer and wild turkeys but I wasn’t able to capture a photo.

Flowers

I was happy to see that these plants survived the freeze we had around Christmas.

Backyard Birds

Painted Buntings and other birds started appearing at my backyard bird feeder and in the surrounding salt marsh. The hummingbirds are also here but so far I haven’t been able to get a photo of them.

Books

Our Book Club book for April was “The Blessing of the Celtic Curse”, the first in the Saints of Savannah series. The author, Leigh Ebberwein was our guest at our April meeting. We all loved the book and enjoyed hearing her stories about writing the book.

I also enjoyed reading “Remarkable Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt, “My Sisters Grave” by Robert Dugoni and “Still Life” by Louise Penney.

Shared with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #245 – Environments

April 23, 2023April 24, 2023Posted in Nature, PhotographyTagged environments, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge19 Comments

For this challenge our host Tina asks us to highlight environments we have experienced.

My husband and I have always enjoyed traveling. When our children were young and we were both still working we only had a limited amount of time and money for vacations. Our favorite vacation environments were campgrounds. We started out tent camping and later moved up to a pop up camper.

For many years we spent time in the Florida Keys at least once a year where the tropical environment revolves around the water.

After our kids were grown and we retired, we bought a fifth wheel trailer to travel around the United States and Canada. We enjoyed sleeping in our own bed at night and not having to pack and unpack as we traveled in our home on wheels. Our camping environments changed from place to place but our favorite places to camp were where we were surrounded by nature.

Sunrise in Flamingo Campground, Everglades National Park, Florida

We made our last RV trip in 2019 and started enjoying different environments when we travel. During our 2019 trip to Ireland and Scotland our environments included cities, small towns, countrysides, and ancient castles.

When we stopped taking the RV on trips our travel environments changed from campgrounds to motels by the interstate, a historical hotel, a quaint inn, a condo near Orlando, and our first stay in an Airbnb.

We discovered a new to us travel environment last year when we took a cruise to the Caribbean and another to Alaska. It was wonderful to unpack once, have the room cleaned twice a day, enjoying delicious meals that I didn’t have to cook, and a different environment in every port.